The Forsaken Call

by Jamie Murray

  "Is that a Forces?" Luke demanded as he drew an arrow.

  "No," Raven said, waving her hand to call him off. "Well, barely. It's a Gislan, or at least used to be one. We call it a Skeleton."

  The creature scurried along the wall and disappeared beneath the gray gas.

  "How can that have been a person?" Jameson questioned.

  "It happens in Gislan sometimes," Baloric answered lucidly. "It's a parasitic Forces that feeds on dying men and inhabits their bodies. Once the creature is inside, there's little that can be done to get it out, but the Forces can inhabit it indefinitely, so that body could theoretically be hundreds of years old, especially if it's been hiding in the tunnels all this time."

  "Should we just let it get away?" Luke inquired, still keeping his bow ready.

  "It can't do any damage on its own," Baloric said. "It's not something we have to worry about." He paused a moment, listening to the distant whistle. "I've never actually seen one before. It's a rather disturbing image to see what can happen here if you don't die fast enough in Gislan."

  "You sure it's all right to let it go, then?" Jameson clarified.

  "As long as it doesn't feel threatened, it should leave us alone," said Baloric. "Just don't give it any reason to attack us, and it won't."

  "In the meantime, we're at a dead end," Raven added.

  "Not necessarily," said William, leaning over the edge as well. "The Skeleton has to have some reason to go down there, so it's probably not a hole. There must be a floor down there at some point. We could climb down there using the toeholds."

  "That's probably where the door will be," Jameson assessed.

  "Are we somehow forgetting that poison gas?" Luke questioned skeptically.

  "The Skeleton needs air to breathe," William said adamantly. "There's clean air down there."

  "There could be a layer of gas with breathable air underneath it," Raven admitted. "There are sections in the maze like that. I wouldn't call it clean air, but certainly breathable."

  "Finding out is a little trial and error, though," Jameson pointed out. "If we end up being wrong, there won't be enough time to climb up again."

  "It would be easy to find out," said William, sounding eager. "After all—"

  "No," Raven said, putting her arms around him protectively, but also extremely tightly just in case he attempted another surprise escape.

  "I mean I could move the gas aside with wind and maybe we'd be able to see the bottom," said William, looking annoyed.

  "There's nothing in here to draw energy from. Everything is dead," Baloric said, and then turned to William with a gravely serious expression in his eyes. "What did you draw energy from before?"

  "Just from the group," said William.

  "What group?" Baloric demanded, raising his voice. "This group? The rest of us here?"

  "I only had to use a little bit of magic," said William defensively. "I just took barely anything at all from everyone. No one even noticed, did you?"

  He looked around desperately for someone to back him up, but Baloric threw a harsh look at Jameson, warning him not to support what William had done. Jameson remembered Baloric telling him that drawing energy from another person was forbidden so he could see why he was angry with William but, at the same time, he also saw William's logical. Admittedly, he hadn't felt at all affected when William had taken energy from him to the point in which he didn't even known it happened.

  Still, the last thing he needed was for Baloric to be angry with him about something else, so he turned around and pointed his head down at the hole, hoping he would be able to decipher a result to quell the tension in time.

  "I don't see the problem!" William was almost yelling. "No one got hurt!"

  "Do you encourage this?" Baloric said, now directing his irritation towards Raven. "Every Gislan knows it's absolutely forbidden to ever draw life from another person. Especially, you would be so bold as to draw life from him? From Jameson?"

  Jameson turned and winced at the thought that he was brought into a conversation he had been attempting to avoid.

  "He's fine!" William argued.

  "You talk about our lives mattering, but there is no single life right now that matters more than his," said Baloric, hardly able to contain himself as the skin around his eyes flushed red from anger. "What if he died, William? Jameson has no children. Our dream to get our world back from Devin would have ended right here."

  Jameson wasn't sure if this comment was designed to terrify him as well. When Jameson's father died, the Prophecy skipped to the next available generation, but Baloric did have an obvious point; there was no generation following Jameson. He had no brothers or sisters and certainly did not have children. This reality was suddenly sobering and distressing. He felt ill-prepared and even foolish, somehow.

  "I think you might be overreacting," Raven decided.

  "How is the entire future of the world overreacting?" Baloric's voice was rising to sound like shouting. "Didn't you ever teach him anything? Why doesn't he know basic rules? Did you both really rely on the Angel so much?"

  "I was only a little girl when our parents died, I didn't have a choice!" Raven met his frustration and accelerated the argument to the next level in an instant.

  "Hang on guys, I think I just heard something," Luke said quite randomly as he turned around and loaded an arrow loosely into his bow. "You all hear that?"

  "Yeah, I think I heard it too," Jameson agreed quickly as he made brief eye contact with Luke's reassuring expression.

  "We should fan out and check what the noise was, or something," Luke suggested. "William, you're with me. Jameson, how about you go with Raven? Baloric"—Luke did not even appear fazed whatsoever—"how about you look around by yourself for a few minutes?"

  Baloric stood absolutely frozen for a good few seconds, but of course it felt unbelievably long for everyone who was waiting for him to react. Jameson was certain he would not react violently or with anger, but he was also sure he was not happy with the way anything was playing out ever since he woke up. In the end, Jameson knew Baloric was sensible enough to acknowledge when quiet time was needed.

  "Fine," Baloric decided at last. He appeared, at the very least, perturbed. Jameson thought that might have been an overly ambitious optimistic opinion, however.

  Still, he felt relieved when Raven immediately went to his side and turned him around so they were no longer facing Baloric. Jameson checked over his shoulder as Luke and William wandered to the end of the ledge and Baloric went off towards the hall leading to the archway in search of a noise all of them mutually knew was fabricated to relieve tension.

  "He never used to be so mean," Raven said quietly.

  Jameson put his hand on her shoulder. "He's not mean," he said. "What I mean is, I don't think he's trying to be mean. He's just afraid of you two."

  "Afraid of us?"

  "Well, no. Maybe more...afraid about you. The thought of you two suddenly being here is freaking him out and I guess he's kind of the overprotective type now that he has you here to protect."

  Raven sighed and her shoulders seemed to deflate. "It probably doesn't help that his magic doesn't work anymore," she mumbled.

  "I'm sure that's not doing us any good," Jameson said. "There are just a lot of stress factors at different angles. If it helps, he's been pretty short tempered with me too."

  "Thanks," said Raven with a slight smile.

  He felt good that he was able to raise her spirits, if only a little bit, but he suddenly heard the sound of the familiar whistling of the Skeleton behind him so he spun around to see the creature flash speedily across the toe holds on the other side of the hole. It didn't stop to look at Jameson or Raven, then leapt for the opposite ledge, then the low ceiling. When it was in the middle of the room and hanging down from the ceiling, it opened its mouth as if on hinges, increasing the volume of the whistling to create a high pitched shriek.

  At first, it was only startling, but it quickly became ear pi
ercing. Baloric returned and demanded to know who had provoked it, though his voice was drowned out by the shriek of the Skeleton. It was only a few feet from William and Luke, and began to charge them, raised only a few short inches off the ground, galloping like an animal.

  William raised his hands defensively and expelled a light gust of wind meant only to redirect the creature as it leapt. Jameson drew his sword, prepared to strike it as it was repelled, but it recovered quickly and made another leap towards William and Luke. Finally, Luke opted to raise his bow and unloaded an arrow in the Skeleton's chest, which appeared to slay it effectively enough.

  Even as the Skeleton twitched and contorted its arms, the howl from the void of its mouth took a good minute to settle and fade. It was pinned to the ground with the arrow and, once its movements halted, Luke felt bold enough to approach it.

  "Don't," Baloric warned, waving Luke off.

  "I'm just getting my arrow," Luke said. "I don't have very many. I have to reuse them."

  Baloric paused a few seconds, his eyes focused on the Skeleton, then nodded.

  Luke strode deliberately up to the Skeleton and did not hesitate, yanking the arrow from its chest and returning it to the proper place. The Skeleton fell to the ground stiffly like a plank of wood and Luke stepped backwards to avoid it when it dropped.

  "What made it attack like that?" Jameson asked.

  His question was slightly directed at William, but he hoped it wasn't obvious to Baloric. The basic interrogation seemed to make William crack almost immediately, however, because he spat out, "I just wanted to move the gas a little bit to prove my theory about the clean air!"

  "William!" Raven scolded, eyeing Baloric perhaps to gauge his reaction. Through it all, Baloric remained completely stone faced.

  "He was right, though," Luke intervened. "There's a path to the bottom and nobody was hurt."

  Following his statement, the Skeleton suddenly moved: its stiff hand clawed downwards, swiping through the air and grazing Luke's leg. Luke jumped and almost stumbled away from the creature as Jameson made a move to attack it, but once again Baloric was quick to stop them from acting.

  "It was just the Forces leaving the body," he said. "It's dead."

  "Are you all right, Luke?" Jameson asked.

  "It clipped my leg, but I'm fine," Luke said, frowning at the rip in his pants and the stain of blood forming around the cut.

  Baloric exhaled deeply and walked to the edge where William and Luke had been before the Skeleton attacked. "How thick was the layer of gas?" he asked quietly, as if reluctant to bring it up.

  "Thin," William said, looking hopeful.

  "I'll go first," Baloric said, his frown deepening. "None of you follow me before I call for you. Can you at least listen to that much? All of you?"

  He scanned the other four intensely, part of him wanting to convey anger, but all he succeeded in seeming was desperate.

  "Go quick, then," Raven said. "Don't make us wait. Talk constantly so we know you're all right. Not a second of silence, all right?"

  "That sounds like a good compromise," Jameson said hopefully.

  "Fine," said Baloric. "Let's keep going."

  He gave one last look to the Skeleton and then began to search for the first toehold.

  47. I Guess I'm Something

  Chapter 47

  "I'm below the layer of gas now. It's more difficult to see. I think I can see another ledge, but I'll have to jump in order to get to it. It's not that far. Wait one second.—All right. The ground is solid. The rest of you can come down now, if you're ready."

  Jameson tried to peer through the grayness, but he could not see Baloric. In spite of this, he didn't feel terribly apprehensive following Baloric's commentary on his climb down.

  "I'll go so you all can at least see down there," Raven said. "William, don't use anymore magic, okay?"

  William knelt beside his sister as she climbed over the ledge. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "I don't like all these new rules, though."

  She glared at him and then nodded at Luke and Jameson. Within a few seconds, she disappeared into the gas, and called out to Baloric. They had a short exchange as she jumped across to the ledge where he was standing, then eagerly called for the rest of them to come as well. William was already on his way down before instructed to, so Jameson elected himself to go next.

  "Luke?" he questioned when he noticed his friend looked completely distracted, gazing back at the Skeleton which had not moved since its surprise attack. "What is it?"

  "Nothing," Luke said, his eyes still fixed on the Skeleton. "I thought I saw it move."

  "You just want to get it back for getting that cheap shot," Jameson said. "I guess it says something about you when a dead thing can make you bleed."

  It was meant to be funny, but Luke looked oddly grave and nodded. Jameson thought he should revoke his joke, and then decided he was thinking too much about it so he began to climb down, holding his breath as he passed through the gray gas. Luke was only a few toeholds over him so he had to keep moving. After he passed through the layer, he glanced around him to see Baloric and his two siblings standing on a ledge only about three feet from where he was clinging to the wall. Underneath him, the hole only went further into the ground. He wondered just how far that hole went down before it came to another ledge.

  He jumped over to solid ground to see what the others were looking at: after passing through a low overhang, the room opened up to create a grand sized room with a ceiling that stretched higher than the distance they had climbed down. Jameson was unconcerned with the ancient ornaments and statues which decorated the glamorous room, however, and instead practically found himself running towards the wall on the opposite side. Once again, he was getting one of those feelings that he was moving without his own permission. He was automatic as he finally reached the wall and lightly touched his hand against it.

  A giant wall scroll got in the way of what he was looking for. He grabbed the cloth and yanked it as hard as he could, tearing it from the ceiling and pulling it down to the ground. He patted the wall a few times, trying to find the small groove where the stone would fit. The light which would resurrect the Spirit into Raven was undoubtedly behind the wall, so all he had to do was find the place where Raven would place the stone.

  Raven gasped out loud at his actions, but he only looked over his shoulder and gestured for her, as well as the others, to come over.

  When he glanced back, he noticed something peculiar. Luke had just jumped over the ledge, but he was now crouched over, not moving and looking pale. Even from his distance far across the room, Jameson could tell Luke was suddenly not well.

  "Luke, are you all right?" Jameson called.

  "Yeah, I'm fine," Luke asked, standing up hastily. His arm stayed locked by his side as he made short, choppy steps towards Jameson.

  "Why would you destroy the Shrine to our Shadow Spirit?" William demanded.

  "It's not the Shadow Spirit anymore," said Jameson. "Your sister is going to be the Shadow Spirit now."

  William certainly looked like he wanted to know information as Jameson bypassed him to make his way back to Luke, who had stopped moving again.

  "Find a hole in the wall to put the stone," Jameson instructed Raven as he reached Luke. "From there, you'll know what to do." He lowered his voice and tried to get Luke's wandering attention. "What's going on? Are you awestruck or what?"

  "I guess," said Luke dryly. "I'm something."

  "Are you having a hard time walking?" Jameson inquired as Luke attempted to press forward by slowly sliding his foot across the ground. Once in an almost-lunge, he slid the other foot to catch up with him. Jameson only looked at Luke, trying to prompt him to explain why he was walking like that. "Come on, what's the deal?"

  "I don't know," said Luke, sounding distantly confused. "I feel…pretty bad."

  "Bad about what?" Jameson asked. "Did you breathe in some of that gas?"

  He shook his head and looked down. A
t a disturbingly slow pace, he lifted up one of his legs—the leg with the cut on the shin—and presented it to Jameson. "This thing…" he said haltingly. "It feels like…I'm not sure." The cut itself was small and inconsequential, but the skin around it was dark, like it had already begun to bruise heavily.

  Jameson stared vacantly at the cut and then called to Baloric. William and Raven did not want to stand over there by themselves as Jameson nervously helped Luke sit down and then quickly explained the very little information he had managed to get out of Luke in the past minute.